Overview and aims
- Provide an enhanced understanding of the complex economic and financial environments within which construction organisations operate
- Develop your understanding of the strategic requirements and capabilities required to plan and manage a business in complex environments
- Develop necessary skills and strengths to enable you to analyse construction company accounts financially, such as to diagnose specific financial problem areas within such companies and to prescribe satisfactory financially-based solutions for them
- Provide you with frameworks that can be used to assess and compare practical aids to decision making in business
Module content
Business Environment
- Business strategy overview and the strategic management process: Environmental analysis of the construction context, internal organisational analysis, construction market analysis and marketing, strategic options selection, implementation and managing change
- National and organisational, social and cultural perceptions of construction-related industries and professions, ethics and corporate social responsibility
Finance
- Financial analysis and planning: Analysis and evaluation of financial statements. Financial planning in recessionary, inflationary and cyclical environments including influences on construction companies
- Corporate financial management: Working capital cost of capital and capital markets. Risk measurement and portfolio performance
- International business: Financing requirements of national, international and multinational construction companies
- Financial planning and control of a construction-based project
- Estimating, planning and controlling the total investment. Cash flow prediction and management
Learning outcomes
After studying this module you should be able to:
- critically evaluate the complex economic and financial environments within which construction organisations operate
- critically analyse and discuss construction company situations, specific financial problems and financially-based solutions
- discuss and review the substantive aspects of business strategy
- determine and review strategic capabilities required to plan and manage a business in a multiplicity of complex environments and organisation structures.
This module will help you gain the skills and qualities to:
- collect and integrate information and data from various sources
- analyse, evaluate and interpret complex factual information and relevant issues in a systematic, critical and creative manner, and evaluate alternative processes and/or measure against relative criteria; making logical recommendations based on analysis, information and circumstances
- identify, define, critically evaluate and propose solutions to complex problems, including generation of new ideas, innovations, and concepts where appropriate
- effectively communicate information, ideas and concepts in a clear and articulate style, including the use of information technologies and systems where appropriate.